Why Presidents Fail

This notion that I want the President to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we’ve got. That’s nothing more than common sense and to not be able to say it, why in the world do I want what we just described, rampant government growth indebtedness, wealth that’s not even being created yet that is being spent, what is in this? What possibly is in this that anybody of us wants to succeed?

Rush Limbaugh looks at the program of President Obama, and says: I don’t want this to succeed.

The greatest power of all is not the power to run the government to to lead a great army. It is to define what can and cannot be said. It is to have the power to say: This is beyond the pale, and I cannot believe that you would say it.

The great contribution to American culture made by Rush Limbaugh is that he has pushed back against the liberal efforts to draw the line on what is acceptable speech. Back in the 1990s when Limbaugh was first building a national audience for the Rush Limbaugh Program, listeners would call in, agog, and say: But Rush, you’re not allowed to say that!

Of course, if Rush Limbaugh were running for political office, or the head of a foundation, or lobbying for government grants, he could not say the things he says.

This is something that Limbaugh’s liberal critics do not understand. Rush Limbaugh does not live or die by his political reputation. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer who lives and dies by the ratings of his radio show. He is like any celebrity: all publicity is good publicity.

So if Rush Limbaugh has failed for several months to raise the outrage of the liberals, an alarm bell goes off in his head. It is telling him to serve up something outrageous, get into the news—and drive a few new listeners to his radio program.

The folk in the conservative rank-and-file appreciate the courage that Rush Limbaugh exhibits. They appreciate that someone at least has the guts to show their head above the parapet and say the things that liberals say you are not allowed to say in America.

Rush Limbaugh is only saying what every conservative is saying in his heart: Golly. I sure hope this guy fails to get all the new taxing and spending that he’s planning. If Obama succeeds we will look back and see that he really did change America—for the worse.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

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Faith & Purpose

“When we began first to preach these things, the people appeared as awakened from the sleep of ages—they seemed to see for the first time that they were responsible beings...”
Finke, Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990

Mutual Aid

In 1911... at least nine million of the 12 million covered by national insurance were already members of voluntary sick pay schemes. A similar proportion were also eligible for medical care.
Green, Reinventing Civil Society

Education

“We have met with families in which for weeks together, not an article of sustenance but potatoes had been used; yet for every child the hard-earned sum was provided to send them to school.”
E. G. West, Education and the State

Living Under Law

Law being too tenuous to rely upon in [Ulster and the Scottish borderlands], people developed patterns of settling differences by personal fighting and family feuds.
Thomas Sowell, Conquests and Cultures

German Philosophy

The primary thing to keep in mind about German and Russian thought since 1800 is that it takes for granted that the Cartesian, Lockean or Humean scientific and philosophical conception of man and nature... has been shown by indisputable evidence to be inadequate.
F.S.C. Northrop, The Meeting of East and West

Knowledge

Inquiry does not start unless there is a problem... It is the problem and its characteristics revealed by analysis which guides one first to the relevant facts and then, once the relevant facts are known, to the relevant hypotheses.
F.S.C. Northrop, The Logic of the Sciences and the Humanities

Chappies

“But I saw a man yesterday who knows a fellow who had it from a chappie that said that Urquhart had been dipping himself a bit recklessly off the deep end.” —Freddy Arbuthnot
Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison

Democratic Capitalism

I mean three systems in one: a predominantly market economy; a polity respectful of the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and a system of cultural institutions moved by ideals of liberty and justice for all. In short, three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

Action

The incentive that impels a man to act is always some uneasiness... But to make a man act [he must have] the expectation that purposeful behavior has the power to remove or at least to alleviate the felt uneasiness.
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

Churches

[In the] higher Christian churches� they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a string of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it every minute.
Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

Conversion

“When we received Christ,” Phil added, “all of a sudden we now had a rule book to go by, and when we had problems the preacher was right there to give us the answers.”
James M. Ault, Jr., Spirit and Flesh

Living Law

The recognition and integration of extralegal property rights [in the Homestead Act] was a key element in the United States becoming the most important market economy and producer of capital in the world.
Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital

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